Comptroller, AG push for protections for immigrant workers in labor investigations

Want deportation grace period extended

A coalition of more than two dozen state and local government agencies, among them the State Attorney General’s Office and the City Comptroller’s Office, are urging the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to expand the protection period from two years to four for non-citizens who experience or witness labor violations.

Immigrant workers are often afraid to report unsafe workplaces, wage violations and illegal working conditions due to fears of deportation. Last week, 27 labor enforcement agencies sent a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, calling on DHS to extend the Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement program, or DALE, which offers protection against deportation for a two-year period to immigrant workers cooperating in a labor investigation.